In the manufacture of many garments, particularly sportswear, infants' and children's wear, decorative appliques are applied to the garment. Basically, two methods of attachment are utilized. One method is to attach the applique solely by bonding with a suitable adhesive. A second method is to attach the applique by sewing. The use of adhesives is considered less desirable than sewing because adhesives, on occasion, lose their bonding ability as a result of dry cleaning or laundering and, thus, the applique becomes detached. Also, many adhesives, when applied in film thickness adequate for permanent attachment, tend to make the applique stiff and, thereby, produce an area of the garment which does not have the same flexibility as the rest of the garment. On the other hand, attaching the appliques by sewing is more expensive because it is time consuming and requires substantially more sophisticated equipment. There is also involved substantial hand labor. Each applique must be accurately placed on the garment and after placing, it must be held in position at least until it has been sufficiently attached that it will not become displaced during the sewing and, thereby, misaligned on the garment. Also, the sewing used to attach the appliques is a type of hemming which follows the perimeter of the applique and, thus, the sewing must accurately follow this perimeter in order to make a neatly finished product. The outline of many appliques is complex and must be carefully followed. Also, in many cases, besides border hemming, designs are applied to the surface of the applique by the sewing machine at the time the applique is attached to the garment. Once again, accuracy of location is very important to the production of a neat and acceptable finished product.
Current practice in attaching appliques to fabric garments is to apply a thin film of a heat sensitive adhesive to the back of the applique. The operator locates the applique on the garment and applies heat to the applique for a time sufficient to activate the adhesive and bond the applique to the fabric. This is a costly procedure for several reasons. First, the application of the adhesive to the applique increases the cost of the applique. The operator time required to heat the applique sufficiently to assure an adequate bond makes the operation labor intensive. Also, it requires the operator to be very careful in locating the applique and holding it in position during the application of the heat because once the adhesive has been activated, the applique's location is fixed. In addition, the use of the adhesive reduces the desirability of the end product because it adds a degree of stiffness to the applique. This is true even though only a thin layer of adhesive can be used since the adhesive's working life is short because, once the sewing has been done, the adhesive's function is complete and its presence becomes redundant. Despite these shortcomings the outlined procedure is standard practice for the attachment of appliques to fabric products such as garments.